Unlike its screen-based sibling industries, gaming has seen relatively little technological upheaval in recent years. That's not to say that everything's great—because it is really not—just that games are as popular as ever, if not more so. Perhaps fittingly, game development feels like it's in a better place than just a few years ago; sure, there are annualized franchises galore, but there's also a vibrant landscape of indie and small-studio projects to go along with the budget-straining blockbusters that dominate the industry's hype machine. And plenty of titles from both categories (as well as the vast inbetweenness) look to be on tap for the coming year.
Between consoles, PCs, mobile, and VR/AR, 2019 will deliver more games than anyone can reasonably be expected to keep track of, but we looked out over the horizon and found the 15 that intrigue us the most. (Note: to be considered, games need to have some visual document of their existence, which is why titles like Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order didn't make it on.) Given the uneasy truce between expectation and reality, it's more than a little possible that none of these make it on to our year-end list come December, but that's what anticipation is all about: going off a trailer and a dream (and a creative team, and a premise, and a dozen other things, but let's not let details get in the way of a good aphorism). So dream on.
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/OStgUx6fYD8 Up until now, the Metro series has been confined to the subways. Set in the Russian underground, the series, based on novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the titles are some of the best post-apocalyptic gaming out there, suffused with an eerie, elegiac mood and a brilliant attention to detail. For Exodus, Metro is finally coming into the light, following the protagonist, a young man named Artyom, as he seeks a better life on the frozen surface. But it surely won't abandon the tense first-person action, creative exploration, and supernatural touch of its predecessors. —JM
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/jZizDqnz7oY There may be no studio more linked to the idea of role-playing franchises than Bioware. Over the past 20 years, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age all found die-hard (and sometimes divided) followings. Now, though, the EA-owned company is trying to pull those followings into a new, online realm. On its surface, Anthem emulates Destiny's shared-shooter format, mixing third-person open-world multiplayer action with RPG-level character customization evolution. As exosuited mercenaries called Freelancers, players will be free to explore individually or band together to take on larger foes. Bioware has been claiming more player choice and narrative heft than Bungie's predecessor, but until the demo becomes available later this month, it's hard to know whether Anthem has a destiny of its own. —PR
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/VczqgqwVssI Over five games, from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls 3, From Software has proven itself deeply adept at making a certain kind of punishing action game. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a well-deserved opportunity to branch out. Set in 16th-century Japan, it's a leaner, sharper, more traditional action game, a whirlwind tale of samurai, monsters, and, naturally, some good-ol' vengeance. Can From Software design more traditional action as impeccable as the deliberately clumsy, disempowered combat of the Souls games? I don't honestly know. But I have enough faith to give this a shot. —JM
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZppAJKcC7ZU The first Rage was an odd game, a bleak open-world first-person shooter developed by id Software during a time when id was waning as a company, without the influence or the vibrancy that had defined it in its glory days. Rage 2, on the other hand, is loud, bombastic, full of color and violent energy. And it's being made in id's second glory days, heralded by their exciting and frankly brilliant Doom remake. Every time I get a glimpse of this Mad-Max-inspired action epic, I get excited. Sometimes, you just need a game that's big and dumb and wild. This looks to be precisely that. —JM
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/cV1CVmpI534 Another title on this list that we've been waiting ages for, Shenmue 3 promises to finally complete the murder-revenge trilogy that began on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. When the series, which stars teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki seeking revenge for the death of his father, got its start, it was a major milestone in the history of modern gaming, with an innovative open world and an impressive attention to detail. After breaking crowdfunding records in 2015, Shenmue 3 is finally gearing up for a potential release this year. Will it live up to the high, high expectations placed on it? We're eager to find out. —JM
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/m-As1OGqJkU Full disclosure: I don't know if I understand much of what I've seen of Control so far. What I know is that it's a big, ambitious supernaturally tinged action game created by Remedy Entertainment, developers of the cult hit Alan Wake and the slightly less popular Quantum Break. I also know that it takes place in a strange, sprawling government building, the eponymous Federal Bureau of Control, that is impossible. It's a building with bizarre, infinite architecture, bending in upon itself, shifting and changing as the player explores it. From the preview materials available, I haven't really gathered why your player character, Jesse, is in this building, or why she has cool psychic powers. But impossible spaces are some of the coolest things games can offer, so sign me up. —JM
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwNpPoK2PgY It's tough to describe what Dreams is about, really. While there's a playable game at its core—one immediately recognizable to fans of developer Media Molecule's previous work on Little Big Planet or Tearaway—its essence is of a toolbox, a maker's feast of world-building abilities. We've seen this approach before, but where titles like Minecraft and Super Mario Maker narrowed their scope to a single aesthetic, Dreams is utterly without constraint: the ecosystem of user-created experiences it enables ranges from lo-fi arcade shooters to sumptuous, eerie forest explorations. You can make anything in Dreams, the studio promises—even Little Big Planet itself. —PR
Honorable Might-Get-Delayed-to-2020 Mentions
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/e25cswlZr10 The term "spiritual successor" gets thrown around a lot, but it may never be quite so applicable as with this, a sidescrolling Metroidvania-type game overseen by Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. It funded on Kickstarter so long ago that Wii U and PlayStation Vita were console options; while that original March 2017 delivery date came and went, the game's development continues apace, with Igarashi recently posting photos of developers in "crunch" mode. We're not holding our breath for 2018—just for more jumpy, slashy goodness. —PR
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/76INCOjtRGQ At this past year's Game Awards, we finally, finally saw a real glimpse of the long-awaited sequel to Double Fine's hilarious psychic therapy platformer. This year (hopefully), we'll get to rejoin young Raz as he discovers his psychic abilities, dives into minds, and sets right what once went screwy. Games often aren't that good at being funny, but the original Psychonauts was one of the funniest games ever made. If we see Psychonauts 2 this year, we're hoping it'll continue the tradition. —JM
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